Dish, from a set of ten with original box

Wooden boxes were used to store ceramics and other precious objects. Inscriptions outside the boxes identified the contents. Often, additional inscriptions inside the box lid or on the base recorded the history of ownership or other details. This box is labeled to contain "a set of ten sashimi dishes" that belonged to the Kashiwaya, probably a fine restaurant or inn, as of 1755, when the box was inscribed and dated. The prized delicacy, known as sashimi-precisely cut raw filets of seasonal fish, with a dipping sauce-flourished chiefly as a specialty of professional chefs. The blue design of irises on these dishes, showing faintly through the thin slices of translucent fish, would have created a cooling visual effect especially appreciated in early summer.